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Top o' the Quilt to Ye ;o)

All that remained to do to finish the quilt top for the Scrap-Happy Herringbone quilt was to pin together and sew one more long seam.  So of course it took me a couple of months (or more?) to get around to doing it.  But hey!  It's done now!

Next up is figuring out the backing.

A while back, I actually bought some fabric to make a pieced backing for this quilt, only to get home, look at those pretty-pretty fabrics, and think, "No.  You are too good for a quilt back."  ...So now they're in line to become another quilt top, at some point in the future.  The backing will probably be a vintage sheet.  I'm still pondering the options.  (And to be honest, I'm nervous about taking the next step... This will be my first quilt sandwich.)

Here are some photos of the newly finished quilt top, stretched out on our bed.  It's not meant to go on the bed, by the way, so it's not nearly big enough for that.  For scale, it's a king size bed.

(Here is where I put in some disclaimer about how I'm still learning and my cutting isn't always exact and my seams aren't perfectly straight, and I'm just hoping it all holds together for a while before coming apart.  ...Ok, now for photos.)

Scrap-Happy Herringbone Quilt (Top)

Scrap-Happy Herringbone Quilt (Top)

Scrap-Happy Herringbone Quilt (Top)

Scrap-Happy Herringbone Quilt (Top)

Scrap-Happy Herringbone Quilt (Top)

Scrap-Happy Herringbone Quilt (Top)

Still on the subject of quilting, I've started playing around with the layout for the string block quilt.  I could probably spend hours rearranging these blocks and still find something to nitpick.  ("Oh, but those two adjacent blocks both feature that really distinctive fabric..."  "And now there's too much pink right there and not enough in the rest of the quilt!")

It's probably best if I just let it be semi-random.  (Not that there's much of a choice, with such random, scrappy blocks!)

String Quilt Blocks

I really like the look of string quilts-- and making the blocks was a lot of fun, too.  I'm very interested in making more string blocks at some point in the future.  (I've even made a Pinterest board for string quilts...)

String Quilt Blocks

The only downside to string quilting that I can see is that to get a really scrappy look (which is my favorite), you need to collect scraps from quite a lot of fabrics.  Of course, if you're an avid quilter, this is probably not a problem-- and there's always the option of buying smaller cuts of a lot of fabrics (particularly when there are good sales).  If you're not worried about cost, jellyrolls are an easy way to amass lots of strips-- but I'm too cheap thrifty to go that route.  ;o)

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The next blog post should be about the latest crocheted pillow, and there ought to be photos.